
COSMOS Study Demonstrates Ability of GE HealthCare’s Portrait Mobile Continuous Monitoring Solutions to Reduce Alarm Fatigue in Ward Environments
GE HealthCare (Nasdaq: GEHC) unveiled the results of a new pilot study conducted in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic evaluating the efficacy of GE HealthCare’s Portrait Mobile wireless and wearable monitoring solution in a ward setting. The findings, which were presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) 2023 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, bring to light the potential for continuous patient monitoring to optimize alarm systems and reduce alarm fatigue, ultimately enhancing patient care.
The study, known as COSMOS (Continuous Ward Monitoring with the GE HealthCare Portrait Mobile Monitoring Solution) Phase 1, enrolled 100 post-surgical patients who had their respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and pulse rate continuously monitored with GE’s Portrait Mobile system. The results of the study demonstrated that continuous monitoring of these vital signs with Portrait Mobile generated valuable alarm data that could be optimized to strike a balance between safety and overburdening healthcare workers. Alarm optimization is vital because it strikes a balance between detecting patient deterioration promptly and preventing healthcare providers from being overwhelmed with non-actionable alarms. Undetected patient deterioration, especially after surgery, can have severe consequences, including preventable complications and even mortality. In intensive care and cardiac telemetry units, alarm rates often number in the hundreds per bed per day. The COSMOS study utilized alarm burden analytics to assess how physiologic data, alarm delays, and alarm thresholds interact to determine the potential number of alarms generated by Portrait Mobile per patient per day at various configurations. The study found that after adjusting thresholds for patients with more than 24 alarms per day (which represented only 6% of patients but 46% of total alarms), the average number of alarms dropped from 7 to 3 per day, or approximately 1 alarm every 8 hours per patient.
Dr. Daniel Sessler, the Principal Investigator of the study and Michael Cudahy Professor and Chair of Outcomes Research at Cleveland Clinic, highlighted the significance of continuous monitoring. He explained, “Most patients recovering from surgery have vital signs evaluated every 4-6 hours. We know that intermittent monitoring misses many vital sign abnormalities. Our analysis identified alert thresholds that identify potentially serious abnormalities without generating undue burden for nurses.”